I'm becoming a crotchety old man losing his patience for vanilla-style sprawl-fests. You did good work, bud, but this ain't my taste anymore.

The overall map strikes me as very disjointed. Still, in spite of everything of interest being hidden behind some sort of fake/shootable wall/ceiling, there is a certain logic to how the gameworld and navigational puzzles are arranged. For instance, in many cases when you run into a dead end, the path ahead is hidden a handful of screens behind (or in plain sight). Eventually you'll start to be able to read the author's mind, and things will start running a bit more smoothly.

Even so, progression felt overly slow for my tastes, and the world just wasn't compelling enough to keep my interest. (Another issue is that being in school kills my motivation for longform entertainment, but that's beside the point.) By the time I beat Draygon, I was just wishing the hack was over. Fortunately, will say that everything after getting the Screw Attack was smooth sailing for me, so in a sense my wish did come true.

In other words, I give this 2 points for fun, and 1 point because Ridley was kind enough to get himself trapped in a corner just for me.

The level of professionalism and polish Drewseph put into this cannot be mistaken. In terms of look, feel, scope, and aesthetic realized-ness, this blows most other hacks straight out of the water. Props to him for that.

Generally speaking, I would say that this hack accomplished its goal of providing a more accessible version of Redesign, at least up until Tourian. Save for a small handful of in rooms that area, I was able to beat this hack without savestates. Granted, I had beaten the original Redesign twice, but that was over 5 years ago (at the very least). It can still be rather challenging at points, but the most egregious nonsense of the original Redesign has been excised or ironed over (well, except for the 25-missile doors).

Unfortunately, some changes have been made for the worse. Phantoon's AI was changed, making an obnoxious boss even more obnoxious. The Screw Attack is now guarded by an entirely opaque sub-Zelda puzzle. And for whatever reason you can't jump off of crumble blocks. Other reviewers have enumerated more of these negative changes, so I'll forbear.

But I will still talk about Tourian. You see, Tourian has been completely redone from the original Redesign. It's now an absolutely brilliant piece of level design that will leave you frothing at the mouth by the time it is finished with you. It's meticulously well-realized and crafted, but utterly and entirely inaccessible to play, even for the most skilled players. All pretensions of "easier-ness" that this hack had come here to die, again and again and again and again. I don't care how hardcore you think you are, you _will_ hit a roadblock here that will send you into a fit of apoplectic rage. Ultimately, I was able to power through the worst of it (with savestates), but even after the difficulty finally started winding down there those moments left a very sour taste in my mouth.

I wish Drewseph the best of luck in his future hacking endeavors. The guy has a lot more talent than most. If he makes a new world for us to explore, I would hope that it is more restrained in scope.